Is the Aerobed really that good? Is it a viable a spare bed for the grandparents?

Posted By Laura in Featured, Gift Inspo, In the Home, pre-Christmas Shopping | 0 comments

I’m sure, like me, you’ve been watching the Aerobed TV ads for years. They’re always so damned persuasive, aren’t they?

But is the Aerobed really that good?

I’ll admit it – no matter how good they look, I’ve always rather distrusted them – with that innate suspicion we all have of anything that the TV tells us is just a bit too good..
But here we are again in December. And like every house up and down the land, that means a lot of preparation for the coming Christmas holiday.

And it’s not just the gifts and the food – we always have my husband’s parents to stay, and readying the house for visitors adds another tier in the To Do list, doesn’t it?

In particular, for us this adds another biggish job – we have to pack up and move 13yr old Jolly from his room into the space beneath Boy’s cabin bed, and shift his desk out into the little hallway. We then have to retrieve the parts of the pine bed frame from the loft, and erect the spare double bed before digging out the spare double mattress from the garage at the bottom of the garden (where it lives for 11 1/2 mths of the year), manhandle it through the house and up the stairs and onto the spare bed.
It’s nothing terribly difficult, but it IS time-consuming – and then of course there’s the reverse process in the New Year.

Every year we think to ourselves that there *must* be a Better Way… But for the last 9yrs we haven’t had the luxury of a permanent spare room to keep the bed up in year-round.
On top of that, my disabled father-in-law has serious issues with his spine and hips, meaning that he’s never really comfortable in the ned anyway – even with a memory foam topper and additional egg-box-foam topper on top of that.

So when Aerobed offered to send us a bed to review, we rather jumped at the chance. After all, if we set it up and we didn’t think it was any good, my sister will still bless us for not having to sleep on the lounge floor when she visits.

So when it arrived this week we immediately hauled it out of the box, plugged it in and set it to inflate.
I didn’t time it, but it was easily inside the suggested 3 minutes. THREE MINUTES. It takes me about 30 minutes to pump up a normal camping airbed by foot.

And it’s HUGE. Importantly, it’s just as high as a ‘normal’ bed – which was our first concern as Father in Law simply cannot get down to anything lower.

I decided that Mr LittleStuff would be proclaimed chief tester – he properly hates airbeds, and would always choose to sleep on a hard floor than wallow around in one. I figured if he was a pretty tough test for it to pass.

So the minute he got in from the gym (apologies for the man-tights, I wouldn’t let him go change first…), I nabbed him and told him to get on and see what he thought.

Raising an eyebrow in distrust, he sat gingerly on the edge… and didn’t immediately sink to his knees or roll off. That’s a BIG plus point – the edges stay as firm as you’d hope a normal mattress would. A little sinkage, but nothing drastic.

Then he stretched out flat… and literally “ooooh!”-ed.

The completely astonishing thing is that the Aerobed is… solid. Secure. It really feels comfortable and steady underneath you. When I got on too there was no rolling into the middle, and no bouncing up and down as the other person got on or off. A little movement, but nothing like that sea-sick feeling you expect from an airbed.

Then Bear showed up and asked if she could get on…

Flying leaps were NOT part of my review plan.
She expected to bounce her Dad off – or at least get a decent ping back herself.
but no – it just stood firm and absorbed her landing. She tried it three or four times – y’know, just to be sure.

Eventually a rather boisterous tickle-fest may have ensued. There was much rolling and snorting and wriggling and flailing. But still the bed stood firm (by the way, do note that the bed comes with a perfect fitted undersheet – it also has a skirt so when made up it really does look just like a normal bed). Even the dog showed up, and started yawning…

Eventually they both flung themselves back to see if they could sink.
They couldn’t.

Mr littleStuff’s verdict?

“D’you know what? I could easily sleep on this. It’s nothing like any airbed I’ve ever been on.”

So this year we’ll be setting up for the annual Christmas visit by moving Jolly out, flinging a lump of plastic on the floor and plugging it in. That’s MY kind of guest prep, that’s for sure… I’ll report back in January and let you know how Father in Law gets on.

If you’re quick, Aerobed’s pre-Christmas sale is on until midnight TONIGHT. We’ve got the Platinum Raised Airbed Double – which should be £250, but until midnight you can snap it up for £125.
Go go go!